Texas Longhorns baseball defeats Incarnate Word 10-3

Texas Longhorns baseball (32-19) defeated the Incarnate Word Cardinals (20-33) 10-3 at home in the last mid-week game of the season on Tuesday night.

Nick Kennedy got the start for the ‘Horns and got into a bit of trouble when he allowed a solo shot in the first to put the Cardinals up 1-0. The lefty, however, locked in and shut Incarnate Word out for the rest of his four complete innings, allowing only one additional hit.

A Travis Jones sac fly in the bottom of the first knotted the score up at one. Michael Cantu broke the game open in the second inning with a two-run homer to make it 3-1. The Longhorns tacked on two more runs in the inning on a Kacy Clemens single, alleviating any anxiety that the Longhorns could be upset by a team ranked outside of the top 250.

In the third, Brett Boswell scored Cantu on a double and David Hamilton got a double of his own to score Boswell and make the score 7-1.

Incarnate Word earned an RBI double and RBI single on scarcely used senior lefty Jon Malmin in the fifth, but that would be the end of their scoring.

Patrick Mathis launched his fifth dinger of year on a two-run shot in the eighth, and Zane Gurwitz concluded the night’s scoring with a sac fly in the same inning.

The Longhorns notched 15 hits in the game. Austin Todd continued to impress in the leadoff spot, going 2-5. Mathis and Kacy Clemens both went 3-5.

Texas can now focus on its critical season concluding series with West Virginia. The ‘Horns will host the Mountaineers for three games this weekend. The Longhorns will likely need two wins to feel safe about their NCAA tournament chances before entering the Big 12 tournament next week